Many new people have started attending the Baptist church in Bacchus Marsh since it was relaunched last year as a campus of Catalyst Baptist Church, with a renovated building, strengthened resources and new capabilities, as they continue to share the hope of the gospel in the area.
“The church is going from strength to strength,” said Bacchus Marsh Campus Pastor John Taekema. “We’re starting to get many new people and we’re almost running out of space! Since the relaunch in September 2025, our average attendance has pretty much tripled. Being a campus of a larger church has opened up opportunities that we didn’t have with smaller resources. Newcomers are turning up and then saying they didn’t expect all this from a little church! It helps when the church is predictable, consistent and well-run.”
But the real impact of the revitalisation is the transformation that is occurring. Three people have been baptised recently, and the church has just run an Alpha course. The families are enjoying the Kids Church, which is run during the service with plenty of singing and dancing involved. Several bible studies are running, plus a men’s group once a month, youth group, and a community meal where people can learn how to cook a dish and then take it home to eat.
John explained the church also is expanding reaching out to engage the local community through running 4 main events each year. “There is a trivia night soon; we’re scaling up the annual Spring Fair in October which saw around a thousand visitors this year; we’ll create a Christmas lights display in the community gardens in December with a pizza oven, fairy floss and popcorn for the kids; and at Easter we hold an outdoor movie-screening.”
John also hopes to start a Family Hub where parents can bring their children three days a week and there are still many more plans for the future, such as building a commercial kitchen, converting the church’s opportunity shop into a centre for young people’s events, and building a canopy over the verandah for a more usable outdoor space.
He said the campus partnership model had suited the church well because central administration and extra support are provided through a large church that has multiple employees and hundreds of volunteers. “We’re one church with two locations, and this means we can share a lot of resources. We have our own team of volunteers but if we need some extra musicians or tech people on a given week, someone is always happy to step in. It also means our volunteers can be trained in things like audiovisuals, children’s ministry and ushering, and we have a central preaching schedule with topics, scripture passages and creative video presentations. This means that I can spend more time pastoring the people and overseeing our local programs. I think it’s a great system and it’s working very well at Bacchus Marsh.”